INDIA
Building collapses in capital
A dilapidated building collapsed in New Delhi yesterday, killing at least four people, and rescuers were searching for others believed to be trapped. Police officer Madhur Verma said five survivors also have been pulled out so far from the debris of the four-story building. Three to four people were believed to be still trapped in the collapsed 50-year-old structure. The Press Trust of India news agency said the collapse was triggered by construction work on an adjacent plot of land. Building collapses are common in India, where high demand for housing and lax regulations have encouraged some builders to cut corners, use substandard materials or add unauthorized extra floors.
VIETNAM
Drug smuggler sentenced
An Australian of Vietnamese origin has been sentenced to death after trying to smuggle 4kg of heroin out off the country, state media in the nation said yesterday. Pham Trung Dung, 37, was caught with two suitcases containing the drugs at Tan Son Nhat airport in May last year while trying to return to Australia with his wife and children. Dung told a court in southern Ho Chi Minh City that he had been promised US$40,000 by two unidentified men to transport the drugs, an online report by the Tien Phong newspaper said. The nation has some of the world’s toughest antidrug laws. Anyone found guilty of possessing more than 600g of heroin, or more than 20kg of opium, can face death. Earlier this month, six people from a 25-member smuggling gang were handed death sentences for smuggling 620kg of heroin and 1,400 ecstasy pills in northern provinces. In January, authorities sentenced 30 smugglers to death in the country’s largest-ever narcotics case.
UNITED STATES
NASA to test ‘flying saucer’
NASA was scheduled to launch a “flying saucer” into Earth’s atmosphere yesterday to test technology that could be used to land on Mars. After several weather delays, the attempt off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai was to test the disc-shaped vehicle and a giant parachute. Since the 1970s, NASA has used the same parachute design to slow landers and rovers as they streak through the thin Martian atmosphere. With plans to send heavier spacecraft and eventually astronauts, the space agency needs a much stronger parachute. NASA is testing the technology high in Earth’s atmosphere because conditions there are similar to that of Mars.
MEXICO
Top vigilante arrested
Forces on Friday arrested Jose Manuel Mireles, a senior leader of the powerful anti-crime vigilante group in Michoacan State. Mireles was detained in the Pacific coastal town of Lazar Cardenas after entering a town with more than 100 armed supporters. Mireles, who sported a thick moustache and wore a cowboy hat, was a cofounder of Michoacan’s vigilante or “self-defense” movement. He was arrested with “weapons of exclusive military use,” the Michoacan state government said via Twitter. Mireles entered the town of La Mira on Thursday with about 600 followers armed with automatic rifles. He claimed that the locals had called him for protection against criminal gangs. Vigilantes in Michoacan, mostly farmers and other civilians, took up arms in February last year claiming that the local police was too incompetent or corrupt to protect them from local criminal gangs, especially the cult-like Knights Templar drug cartel. The government was slow to react, but finally last month they agreed to give the vigilantes uniforms and weapons and legalize their movement, but vowed to arrest any armed group that failed to register with the authorities.
UNITED STATES
Beauty queens lose crowns
Beauty pageant winners in Delaware and Florida lost their crowns this week in separate, unrelated mix-ups. Amanda Longacre, who was named Miss Delaware, lost hers because she is older than the Miss America organization allows. In Florida, officials discovered a tabulation error that cost Elizabeth Fechtel her victory. The 24-year-old Longacre was crowned on June 14 in Delaware, but lost the crown on Wednesday. Miss America pageant rules require contestants to be between 17 and 24, and Longacre will turn 25 on Oct. 22, before the year’s end. Pageant officials said on Thursday that Longacre did nothing wrong and had accurately reported her birthdate on applications. Pageant officials said both Lewis and Longacre are to keep their US$9,000 scholarships.
CANADA
Diplomats seek asylum
Dozens of foreign diplomats have requested asylum in Canada, the daily French-language newspaper La Presse reported on Friday, citing secret government documents. They include 38 Afghan envoys and their families from 2009 to this year as well as 16 diplomats from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Greece, Honduras and even a US embassy staffer. Former head of Canada’s consular affairs Gar Pardy told the Montreal newspaper this is an “unprecedented number” of refugee claims by foreign officials. Experts said their reasons include the hope for a better life, or are aware of rights abuses in their homeland that they can no longer support.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was